Privateers and ports in the mid-Atlantic: Salé and the Canary Islands, c.1600–1850

Abstract

Privateering was a common enterprise in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in the waters between the Azores, the Canary Islands and the Iberian Peninsula. Within this ‘oceanic triangle’, both Salé, on the Moroccan coast, and the Canary Islands, in the domains of the Spanish Crown, played an important role. Although privateers from Salé and the Canary Islands evolved in different ways, they were intricately linked through their proximity to one another. This article explores the relationships between the two and the impact of privateering on their respective ports.